GOLD for a British coxless four has become a tradition at major championships. From Steve Redgrave through Matthew Pinsent to the gold-winning crew stroked by Andy Hodge in Beijing, the thread is unbroken. Yesterday, a new foursome added their names to a distinguished list.

The four of Matt Langridge, Alex Gregory, Ric Egington and Alex Partridge swept to victory down the Malta rowing lake in Poznan with all the style and authority of their predecessors, relegating the same Australian four from Beijing to silver once again.

The margin of victory, nearly two seconds, was even greater than at the Olympics, though the British four was an entirely new crew.

From searching anxiously for new talent for his depleted squad at the turn of the year, Jurgen Grobler, the head men’s coach, is now contemplating an embarrassment of riches. His lead pair of Andy Hodge and Peter Reed, both gold medallists, had to settle for silver behind the New Zealanders, who have now beaten them five times this season. “It’s very different,” said Reed. “We wake up in the morning and know there’s a crew out there that’s quicker than us. That’s a real challenge.”

The question for Grobler is whether to break up the pair and integrate them into a super-four for next season or leave the four intact and hope Hodge and Reed can turn the tables on the New Zealanders. “It would be a cowardly decision to shy away from the pair just because there’s a pair faster than us at the moment,” added Reed.

To complete an outstanding day for the Siemens-sponsored squad, Katherine Grainger and Alan Campbell won silver medals in the single sculls and Anna Bebington and Annabel Vernon also took silver in the women’s double sculls. Grainger’s performance was the most eye-catching. With 500m to go, the three-times Olympic silver medallist surprised even herself by heading the field.

“I thought: ’Oh my God, I’m in the lead,'” Grainger said. “I just wanted to hold it together, so I couldn’t give it a complete burn at the end, which was a bit frustrating. But I wasn’t expected to get a medal, so I’ve proved a few people wrong.”

The decision to move into the single was, by her own admission, a shot in the dark, but the experiment officially ended yesterday. Grainger has not just earned the right to stay in the single for another season but to believe that, in the most gruelling of all rowing disciplines, she can add gold to her collection of silver medals in London 2012.

Campbell too is getting closer and closer to his nemesis, Mahe Drysdale. This time, the Northern Irishman narrowed the gap at the finish to less than a second. If he can hold the New Zealander’s surge through the middle part of the race, he has genuine prospects of becoming an Olympic champion. “Just wait until London” was Campbell’s unequivocal message to Drysdale, a good friend and training partner. Drysdale will be feeling the pressure from Campbell’s relentless pursuit, but these are early days in the Olympic cycle.

The best prospect for gold on the final day of the World Championships rests with Hester Goodsell and Sophie Hosking in the lightweight double sculls. The British girls came into Poznan as World Cup champions but suffered their first defeat at the hands of the Germans in the semi-final as they struggled to combat a stiff crosswind.

“That was a bit of a wake-up call because we’d not been beaten before,” said Hosking. “But our main aim was to qualify for the final and we’ve done that. We’ve only had a handful of races together, so we regard this is as just part of the journey.

Whatever happens, we’ll definitely get stronger over the next couple of years.”

The fledgling British men’s eight have also overperformed this year and could well add a medal to Britain’s growing haul at these world championships.

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